We’re up at 4:15. I take a quick shower then boil water for coffee and tea. There’s no time for breakfast. We can worry about that when we get to EWR. The driver shows up at 5:00 exactly as planned. I don’t think I’ll trust Uber ever again.
I’ll admit I’m nervous about how the bike transport will go. Pretty much every step of the way represents an opportunity for something to break. I just hope we make it to the other side with them intact.
We’re through bag check then TSA in 20 minutes. The pre-check is totally worth it. And the agent didn’t even bother weighing the bikes. So we didn’t need to pay anything extra.
We grab a mediocre breakfast while waiting for the plane to show up.
Even though it is raining when we take off, the flight is smooth sailing. I hate being pent up in this plan.
I’ve talked about the concept of airplanes, as well as airports, during our trip to Florida just 2 weeks ago. I didn’t touch on the subject of actually being on the airplane. I really dislike it. At this age, sitting in this chair for nearly 5 hours adds up and then multiplies all the aches & pains I have accumulated in these 50+ years. Is it awful? Well no, it’s not awful. But is it enjoyable? Only in the context that I know I’m going somewhere really far away. On the plane today I read parts of a Kindle book as well as a physical book, I did some work, I watched 65 (which was passably formulaic), and I stared at the United flight map wishing for it to move faster. I also made a comment to my 2 coworkers when we temporarily flow over the Oklahoma panhandle that we should drop our sewage now. All that said, this mostly goes away when you start to get close and see stuff like this out the window. Now I’m not going to say that this picture is a good one. It’s not even remotely close to the best picture we took today. But it’s symbolic of what you see when you’re starting to get really close to something, and that something is really cool mountain bike terrain.
We don’t even have to wait for the bikes. We take the sky train to the rental car building and we’re in the truck less than an hour after we landed.
We head over to a stop I had hit last time I was in Phoenix for work to grab some lunch and coffee. Stoop Kid for a breakfast sandwich, which was incredible. Then Futuro for an excellent espresso. Super great way to start the trip on this side.
We drive to Sedona and the long day starts to add up. I am zoning out for sure.
We get to the condo at 1:30 which is too early to check in. We check in, but don’t get a room. They say they’ll call us. The lady at the counter is a bit of a wench. I am told they are always like this.
We burn some time by going to FreeForm Coffee in town, which serves me one of the better pour-over coffees I have ever had. Wow. But they close at 2.
We find a Starbucks so D can work while I do things to stay awake. After she’s done we hit Safeway to go food shopping. While there we get the call to check-in, so the timing works out perfectly. We wrap up, drive over, grab the key, and we’re good to go.
After a quick sit down, we make dinner, eat dinner, then go hit the hot tub and talk. After a bit we head back to shower up and I assemble D’s bike, which is almost solid but the rear derailleur is not quite right. So I’ll have some work to do here tomorrow.
And that’s a wrap on day 1. Long day, but good day.
Traveling Normandy 